Restore a Web application in SharePoint Server 2010

This article describes how to restore a Web application. When you restore a Web application, you also restore the Internet Information Services (IIS) settings and all content databases that are associated with the Web application.

Consider the following information as you prepare to restore a Web application:

You can only restore one Web application at a time by using the procedures in this article. However, you can simultaneously restore all the Web applications in the farm by restoring the complete farm.

If a Web application uses the object cache, you must manually configure two special user accounts for the Web application after you restore the Web application. For more information about the object cache and how to configure these user accounts, see Configure object cache user accounts.

You cannot use SQL Server tools to restore a Web application.

When you restore a Web application that is configured to use claims-based authentication, there are additional steps that you must follow after restoring the Web application to restore claims-based authentication.

<BackupFolderName> is the full path to the folder you use for backup files.

<WebApplicationName> is the name of the Web application that was backed up.

<GUID> is the identifier of the back up to use for the restore operation.

If you do not specify the value of the BackupID parameter, the most recent backup will be used. You cannot restore a Web application by using a configuration-only backup. You can view the backups for the farm by typing the following:

We recommend that you use Windows PowerShell when performing command-line administrative tasks. The Stsadm command-line tool has been deprecated, but is included to support compatibility with previous product versions.

Verify that the user account performing this procedure is a member of the Farm Administrators group. Additionally, verify that the Windows SharePoint Services Timer V4 service and the Farm Database Access account have Full Control permissions on the backup folder.

In Central Administration, on the Home page, in the Backup and Restore section, click Restore from a backup.

On the Restore from Backup — Step 1 of 3: Select Backup to Restore page, from the list of backups, select the backup job that contains the farm or Web application backup, and then click Next. You can view more details about each backup by clicking the (+) next to the backup.

Note

If the correct backup job does not appear, in the Current Directory Location text box, type the Universal Naming Convention (UNC) path of the correct backup folder, and then click Refresh.
You cannot use a configuration-only backup to restore the Web application.

On the Restore from Backup — Step 2 of 3: Select Component to Restore page, select the check box that is next to the Web application, and then click Next.

On the Restore from Backup — Step 3 of 3: Select Restore Options page, in the Restore Component section, make sure that Farm\<Web application> appears in the Restore the following content list.

In the Restore Only Configuration Settings section, make sure that the Restore content and configuration settings option is selected.

In the Restore Options section, under Type of Restore, select the Same configuration option. A dialog box appears that asks you to confirm the operation. Click OK.

Note

If the Restore Only Configuration Settings section does not appear, the backup that you selected is a configuration-only backup. You must select another backup.

Click Start Restore.

You can view the general status of all recovery jobs at the top of the Backup and Restore Job Status page in the Readiness section. You can view the status for the current recovery job in the lower part of the page in the Restore section. The status page updates every 30 seconds automatically. You can manually update the status details by clicking Refresh. Backup and recovery are Timer service jobs. Therefore, it may take several seconds for the recovery to start.

If you receive any errors, you can review them in the Failure Message column of the Backup and Restore Job Status page. You can also find more details in the Sprestore.log file at the UNC path that you specified.

You cannot restore the complete Web application by using SQL Server tools. However, you can restore all the databases that are associated with the Web application. To restore the complete Web application, use either Windows PowerShell or Central Administration.

To restore databases associated with a Web application by using SQL Server tools

Verify that the user account performing this procedure is a member of the sysadmin fixed server role.

If the Windows SharePoint Services Timer service is running, stop the service and wait for several minutes for any currently running stored procedures to finish. Do not restart the service until after you restore the databases.

After a Web application that is configured to use claims-based authentication has been restored, duplicate or additional claims providers are often visible. You must use the following process to remove the duplicate providers:

If you configured object cache user accounts for the Web application, the restore process will not restore these settings. You must re-configure the settings for the Web application. For more information, see Configure object cache user accounts.